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The mountain of support for medical marijuana just got higher: A new University of California-Davis study has found that smoking a joint can relieve pain associated with neuropathy, a nerve disorder associated with HIV and some HIV meds. The study supports other findings over the past several years that suggest medical use of marijuana can actually lessen nerve pain -- and not because it leaves people feeling too high to notice they're hurting.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and the National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA) report that no sound scientific studies support the medicinal use of cannabis. Despite this alleged lack of scientific validation, many patients routinely use "medical marijuana," and in many cases this use is for pain related to nerve injury. Scientific support for this practice has come from a double-blinded, placebo-controlled, crossover study evaluating the analgesic efficacy of smoking cannabis for neuropathic pain. Thirty-eight patients with central and peripheral neuropathic pain underwent a standardized procedure for smoking either high-dose (7 percent), low-dose (3.5 percent), or placebo cannabis. In addition to the primary outcome of pain intensity, secondary outcome measures included evoked pain using heat-pain threshold, sensitivity to light touch, psychoactive side effects, and neuropsychological performance.

A mixed linear model demonstrated an analgesic response to smoking cannabis. No effect on evoked pain was seen. Psychoactive effects were minimal and well tolerated, with some acute cognitive effects, particularly with memory, at higher doses.

from Science Daily